The pronouncement would be in connection with the pleas of Imam, Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima.The hearing on the bail plea of accused Shadab Ahmed would continue on Thursday.Mehta contested the accused’s argument of long period of jail time, saying only long incarceration was no ground for giving bail.He called Delhi Police’s probe in the conspiracy case as one of the finest investigations, where to satisfy the conscience of the court, the prosecution recorded 58 statements under Section 164 of the CrPC before the magistrate.”It is not just a case of bail in any other regular riot cases. We are dealing with a well orchestrated, well thought of and well organised criminal conspiracy which starts in the capital of the country aiming at a particular day and time,” he said.Mehta continued, “One of their intentions was to globally defame our nation by choosing a particular day for rioting and arson. I request this court not to treat this as any other ordinary riot case in the country.”He urged the court to be mindful of the gravity of the offence and the intention behind the riots.”The purpose is to show that generally in the history of our country we have seen that riots are usually spontaneous, for something completely unforeseen and people in general suddenly start participating in riot because of some general provocation,” he added.To achieve their goals, Mehta said, Imam and Khalid “broke the secular fabric of JNU” and created a communal WhatsApp group, namely, “Muslim students of JNU”. He said a movement of students does not start with a communal group coming into existence.”Here this is a case where riots were pre planned, well orchestrated, well organised and with a view to achieve a sinister goal which by itself is an example that would disqualify them from any discretionary relief of bail from this court,” Mehta said.Referring to Sharjeel Imam’s purported speech on Assam, Mehta said, “This is dividing the nation permanently, based on religious lines.””This is not a riot case where someone can say it is a long incarceration and I should get bail. This is preparing for dividing the nation, cutting the nation based on a particular religion,” he added.Mehta said, “They (petitioners) showed a narrative that intellectuals are in jail. Their intention was to divide the nation on religious lines. This is not a spontaneous riot… The intention was to cause national embarrassment at a global level. February 24, 2020 was the date when the US President was to visit. Sharjeel Imam delivers a speech four weeks before this clearly indicating the timeline for execution of conspiracy. He says we have four weeks…”
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